Everest Two Ways

This past Wednesday marked with the sixtieth anniversary of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s first summit of Mt. Everest. We asked Jimmy Chin, a National Geographic photographer, as well as a climber and a skier, and Conrad Anker, a famous mountaineer who discovered George Mallory’s body on the mountain during one of the most significant recent expeditions to Everest, to share a selection of their photographs. (Nick Paumgarten writes about another alpinist, Ueli Steck, in the magazine this week.)

“Every year around April and May, stories from Everest begin to trickle into the public conscience,” writes Jimmy Chin. “This spring is no different, with news about Everest in National Geographic, Outside magazine, and the International New York Times, and on CNN. Everest sells. I’ve made four trips to the mountain. I’ve only made it to the top twice. (That’s not false modesty, I know plenty of people with far more ascents.) People often ask me why I undertake the climb. It’s a perfectly reasonable question without a perfectly reasonable answer. Everest draws a very eclectic group—climbers, dreamers, mad men, and trophy hunters. People’s motivations are diverse, and I’ve learned not to question or judge them.”

Here’s a slide show of images from both climbers. First are Jimmy Chin’s spectacular mountain vistas (with captions by Chin), followed by Conrad Anker’s candid iPhone snapshots. Below is a Q. and A. with Anker.

Click on the red arrows for a full-screen view.

In 2004, I followed the Sherpas known as “icefall doctors” on an early trip through the notoriously dangerous and unpredictable Khumbu Icefall. Every year, this special team finds the route, places the ladders, fixes ropes between base camp and Camp 1 for the hundreds of commercial climbers attempting the mountain. These Sherpas also maintain the route throughout the pre-monsoon commercial climbing season. It is one of the most dangerous jobs on the mountain. Photograph by Jimmy Chin.